Pruning Young Fruit Trees

Prune young trees for success

Pruning young trees into the right shape when you plant them is super important, as it sets the tree up correctly for the rest of its life.

One of the saddest things we see with fruit trees (and unfortunately it’s very common) is a tree that has been pruned incorrectly (or not pruned at all) when it was first planted. Left unpruned, the tree will gaily go ahead and grow in the same shape it was when you bought it, which can create big problems.

The shape you choose for your tree should depend on your purpose and goals for the tree, not how it comes out of the nursery. The most common mistake we see in home gardens is a fruit tree with only one, two or three main branches, which leads to a very tall tree that grows most of its fruit high up in the air, where the birds can easily get it and the people can’t! Pruning, netting, thinning, disease control and picking all become very hard, if not impossible, and often the fruit ends up going to waste.

If you’ve planted fruit trees in the last few years, or are planning to plant any in the future, this short course is an absolute must. You’ll learn the wisdom of pruning your fruit trees when you plant them to create a tree that will be useful and manageable for the rest of its life.

The course covers how to decide what shape you want your fruit to be, techniques for creating a vase-shaped tree (with year-by-year instructions), the pros and cons of 7 different tree shapes, and video instructions.

What’s included in this course:

• Unit 1: Establishment pruning (article)
• Unit 2: Establishment pruning (video)
• Unit 3: How to prune a young vase-shaped tree when planting (video)
• Unit 4: How to prune a young vase-shaped peach tree (video)